ARIZONA SOFTBALL HALL OF FAMERS TO ATTEND PUMA SOFTBALL GAME

Thursday, March 10, 2016

On Saturday, March 12, two very special guests will be present for the Puma Softball game against Chandler-Gilbert CC. Dot Wilkinson and Billie Harris are slated to throw out the first pitch prior to the match up. Billie Harris will also perform the National Anthem for both Softball and Baseball.

Both women are members of the Arizona Softball Foundation Hall of Fame.

Dot Wilkinson
Wilkinson started out playing second base for the PBSW Ramblers and a few years later was switched to behind the plate by coach Ford Hoffman, who told her, "You're the catcher, you run the team."� Before retiring in 1965, Wilkinson earned 19 All-America awards and had some outstanding years for the Ramblers, including 1952 (.374 batting average), 1953 (.365 batting average), 1957 (.387 average in national championship); 1955 (.450 average in national with no errors on 36 chances) and 1954 (.455 average and 1.000 fielding percentage on 84 chances in national). Dot said one of her greatest thrills came in 1940 when the Ramblers won their first of three national titles (1948 and 1949). Another Thrill came in 1970, when she received her Hall of Fame plaque. (Courtesy of ASF)

Billie Harris
Most valuable player in the 1969 national tournament in Tucson, she was a five-time All-American pitcher and was voted to the Pacific Coast Women's Softball League all-star team 18 times. The left- handed pitcher authored two perfect games during 1963 for the famous PBSW Ramblers of Phoenix and during her career averaged three no-hit, no-run games per season. During 18 seasons in the Pacific Coast League she fashioned an earned run average of 1.50 and was rated among the league's top three pitchers in games won. She broke in with the Tucson Sunshine Girls in l947, moved to the nationally ranked Ramblers in 1952, joined the Yakima Washington Webbcats in 1966 and returned to pitch for the Sun City Saints in 1970. When the Phoenix Birds joined the Women's Professional League in 1976, she left the amateur ranks to compile a 33-13 record. (Courtesy of ASF)